The Iroquois helped invent lacrosse, but their team might not travel to England for the sport’s world championship because of a dispute over their passports.

The 23 players have passports issued by the Iroquois Confederacy, a group of six Indian nations overseeing land that stretches from upstate New York into Ontario, Canada.

The United States government says it will let players back into the country only if they have US passports, a team official said. And the British government won’t give the players visas if they cannot guarantee they’ll be allowed to go home.

The Iroquois team members born within the US have been offered US passports, but the players refuse to carry them, because they see the government-issued documents as an attack on their identity, said Tonya Gonnella Frichner, a member of the Onondaga Nation.

Matt Chandler, a Homeland Security spokesman, said his agency was working with other entities, including the State Department, to resolve the issue.